34: REV. W. ST. CLAIR TISDALL, M.A., D.D.. ON THE INFLUENCE 



practical monotheism, but his followers persist in* worshipping 

 him as an Incarnation, and then the Adi-Granth, their sacred 

 book, as containing the Divine teaching which he received and 

 gave. But the Sikhs are steadily sinking back into a debased 

 Hinduism, though retaining the name and the outward rites of 

 their faith. 



Caitanya was born about a.d. 1485. His leading doctrine 

 was the need of devotion (bJiakti) centred in a man in each 

 generation, who would be an Incarnation of Krishna. The 

 influence of the Bhacravad-Gita is verv stronor in hi^ svstem.+ 



Tulasi-Das belonged to the Eamanandi sect, and lived in the 

 sixteenth century. His Braj Bhasha " Eamayana " (which 

 must not be confounded with the Sanskrit epic of the same 

 name) teaches the worship of Eamacandra as the one Incarna- 

 tion of the god Vishnu. The book contains a very great deal of 

 what we mav almost call Christian teach incr under the orarb of 

 Hindu names and expressions. This is specially the case with 

 regard to his teaching on devotion and grace. Christians might 

 well employ much ol the language in which he speaks of these 

 subjects, were it not that the object of his devotion is not the 

 historic Lord Jesus Chiist, but the legendary Eamacandra, 

 supposed to be an Avatara of the god Vishnu. It is because of 

 their heathen associations that all Indian reformers have failed, 

 and that their followers have sunk into Hindu sects, often poly- 

 theistic and immoral. Perhaps nothing in Tulasi-Das and in 

 Manikka Vacikar, who is often associated with him, is more 

 chstinctively Christian in origin than their doctrine of Vicarious 

 Suffering. This seems to have brought much comfort to their 

 own souls. And, as there is nothing of the kind in Hinduism, 

 it is one of many indications of the influence which Christianity 

 has exercised in moulding the religion which they taught. 



(3) Modei-^i Hindu Sects. 



Our limits do not allow us to deal at all fully with the many 

 sects of modern Hinduism, upon all of which Christian influences 

 have been exerted to a greater or less deiiree. All we can do is 

 to indicate how these influences have worked, and are even now 

 working, in two of the cliief of such Xeo-Hindu forms of 

 religion : (1) the Brahmo-Samaj and its offshoots, and (2) the 

 Arya-Samaj. 



* LilHngston, The BraAmo Samaj and Arya Samaj^ p. 40 ; Moore, 

 pp. 351, 352. 



+ Monier- Williams, Hinduis-m, p. 146 ; Lillingston, p. 35 ; Moore, 

 pp. 134 sqq., 339. 



